


This Moment in Time

by betweentheskies



Series: 100 Word Challenge [7]
Category: Leverage
Genre: Emotional Hurt, Lost Love, Season 2 finale spoiler, Secrets, Self-Discovery, Spoilers, and season 3 episode 1 spoiler
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-10
Updated: 2020-11-10
Packaged: 2021-03-08 23:34:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,002
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27495040
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/betweentheskies/pseuds/betweentheskies
Summary: That was when the tension from the takedown resurfaced. Those hurt feelings of finding out that Nate had spoken with Sterling behind all of their backs - behind Sophie’s back - trickled into their lives again when Nate refused being helped for a second time.[Word of the Day: Moment]
Series: 100 Word Challenge [7]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1432918
Comments: 1
Kudos: 9





	This Moment in Time

**Author's Note:**

> Not me rewatching Leverage for the xth time and writing this...

The events that followed the takedown were all a blur to Sophie. Still are, actually. Sometimes a new memory will flash in her mind and she’ll realize it’s another missing moment from time and once again, she’s flooded with sadness, remorse, regret… Any number of emotions that make her feel worse.

_Agents. Agents everywhere. Including Sterling. His smug expression. Guns. Guns everywhere, too. Nate pulls a bloody hand away from his stomach and they’re close, so close. The helicopter is buzzing in the air, now. Maybe Eliot could… Eliot couldn’t. He’s too busy wrapping his arms around Sophia, dragging her away from all the three-letter agency agents that are swarming the vessel. Parker, too, has to be held back by Hardison as they leave Nate behind. Bloody. Captured. Alone._

Sterling was like a hawk for the two weeks that Nate was recovering in the hospital. He had chosen to lock Nate up in a small hospital, one that could handle being shut down for two weeks with the utmost security watching everyone’s move. But it’s not like they would have made a move, anyway. Each of them were still reeling in their own emotions in their own way. The common factor was being hurt by Nate’s double-cross… A double-cross that ended in his own demise.

It all felt like a cruel twist of fate. Here she was, back in the flesh, back to support her Black King with his ingenious plans of trickery and deceit, only to have the one foundation she had left ripped out from underneath her. Nate, through his drinking and anger and guilts from the past, could always be counted on. When Hardison was spouting off tech facts and Parker was embracing the wild side of a con too much and Eliot was sulking over a wound from a fight, there was always Nate in the background, Nate with his soft smile and watching eyes, who could pick up all their pieces and mold it together into one beautiful team. 

And now their mastermind was gone, destined for some supermax prison unless they break him out.

Which would have all gone to plan if he hadn’t said that one simple word.

_“No.”  
“No, what do you mean ‘no’?!”_

And with one simple word, all hope that the team and Sophie had of getting their fearless leader back was crushed all over again. Another moment ruined, seemingly at Nate’s own creating. 

Which, alright, was fine. They would regroup, recover. This wasn’t a Sterling-controlled hospital. This wasn’t the local courthouse. This was a prison. People broke out of prison all the time and none of them had the resources like they had.

_“You’re not breaking me out of prison.”_

Maybe they had been desperate at that point, desperate to get Nate and desperate to reestablish some sense of normalcy in their lives. But did Nate lose so much blood that it affected his brain? Did he understand the words that he was saying? He was saying a big fat no to being rescued for the _second time?_

That was when the tension from the takedown resurfaced. Those hurt feelings of finding out that Nate had spoken with Sterling behind all of their backs - behind Sophie’s back - trickled into their lives again when Nate refused being helped for a second time. 

But instead of being lost, instead of regrouping themselves around the concept of rescuing Nate, they focused on themselves, created new moments to overshadow the depressing ones they just suffered through. Parker bounced around the state, refreshing her thieving skills by breaking into museums but never stealing anything. Doing things just because she could. Eliot holed himself up in his home for days at a time, only leaving to go to the store. He wouldn’t admit it to anyone, not yet at least, but he was busy practicing every recipe he wanted to but couldn’t because he was busy working with the team. Letting his home fill with the scents of meals that masked the feelings of betrayal he had. Hardison, predictable Hardison, stayed occupied with his games, his computers, his robotics. He recently took up making model toys. Ones that ran on a battery, of course.

As for Sophie, it took her a bit longer to discover what her moment was going to be. She had just come back from her journey of self discovery, her journey to understand her place in the world, only to have part of her world gone. But that didn’t mean she had to start all over again, had to leave once more to understand this person that was “Sophie.” The true Sophie.

And she understood what she had to do, the moment that she needed to ground herself in the reality she was living in. It was a rare day where they were all together, called by Sophie who said that it’d be good to meet and catch up. And as everyone shared their stories, or pieces of, three pairs of eyes settled on the raven-haired woman who had summoned them together that day.

“What’s been going on with you, Sophie?” Eliot asked, hands loosely clasped on the surface of the table.

“Well, that’s what I wanted to talk about, actually,” she answered with a bit of a smile, thankful to have a bit of a segway into the conversation.

“As you all know, Sophie is not my real name…” After she spoke, each understood exactly where she was going and each held their breaths in anticipation. For a grifter, their real identity was their most valued possession, something that few knew about or would ever have the pleasure of knowing. 

And that was equally true for Sophie who, as she took a deep breath, couldn’t help but smile as she examined the three faces in front of her, taking in their expressions and reactions so that this moment could live in her memory forever. 

“I would like to formally introduce myself to you all. From now on, you may all call me…”

**Author's Note:**

> thank you, as always, for reading!


End file.
